Capturing a Vision of 2010
What happened at the end of 2008 and through 2009 was remarkable. It was an historic downturn and the worst economic crisis that any of us have ever experienced. If you worked in sales, you faced the hurricane force headwinds of demand for your product or service declining by an order of magnitude. If you worked in sales you worked much harder to produce results—results that may not have been what you or your company desired. It was the worst of era.
The end of 2008 and all of 2009 was as hard a sales environment as any of us have ever experienced, and with luck, something we will never have to experience again. But the real distress with going through periods that cause the kind of deep stress and entrenching that was required to survive the Fantastic Recession is that the mindset that is required to survive sticks. You hang on to the entrenched, survival mindset longer than is necessary and longer than is useful.
At some point, you have to go from keeping your head down and plowing through in darkness to lifting your eyes to capture a new vision of a better and brighter future.
Will You Notice the Light?
I usually save my question for the end of my posts. But this post is really about the questions that you need to question yourself now. Your sales results are the result of what you believe and how you act on those beliefs. At the halfway point of this year, let’s do some checking in.
Have you shed your entrenched, head down, nose to the grindstone, survivalist mentality for something more useful?
Have you lifted your eyes yet?
Have you traded ancient fears for new hope?
Have you traded your goal of survival for a new ambition?
Do you still believe that unknown is buying?
Have you made the choice to act?
Have you captured a new vision of what 2010 means to you? Has it changed from what it was in 2009?
A New Vision for 2010
The fantastic danger in retaining the dread and the behaviors of the past few years is that they prevent you from capturing new opportunities. Those that believe there is a better future act on those beliefs and make it their reality. The find opportunity and they make opportunities. The first do so win, and they win huge.
There is still time in 2010 to make of it what you will. There is still plenty of time for you to attach a new meaning to 2010, to make a new vision for what it will mean to you and your company (if you haven’t already). And there is still time to take the actions that will produce the results that can and will define 2010 for you.
But to see that vision, to really capture that vision, you have to lift your eyes and look up. Then you have to march forward and act on your new vision. There are lots of people who are counting on you to both provide the vision and to act on it.
Be changed by what you experienced during 2009. But be changed in a clear way. Capture the lessons that allowed you to survive; you may someday need them again. But don’t allow the dread of the darkness to prevent you from going out into the light.
Is it the simplest time in history to make sales? No, it probably isn’t. But there is no reason to believe it is still December 2008, either.
Lift your eyes.
Make your future.